The Reaping of Norah Bentley (31 page)

“You can’t do this.”

He grabbed my chin, his fingers cold and rough, and jerked my gaze up to his. “Oh, but I can,” he said. “And I
will.”

I tried to pull away, but his grip became crushing. I accidently bit my tongue so hard I tasted blood.

“Your life, or his soul,” he said, his voice civil again. “Like I said—I’d prefer your life. But somehow I don’t think either of us are going to be able to convince him to take it. So. His soul it is, then. I hope you’ve made the most of your time together.”

I didn’t think. I just slapped, my hand making a sound like a cracking whip as it flew across Sam’s cheek. His hand dropped away from my face—more out of surprise than anything, I think— and he stumbled back a step. But he recovered almost as quickly.

“I have to say, I do admire audacity in a human—at times.” He touched a hand lightly to his cheek and then closed the space between us. “But right now, I’m afraid I’m finding it rather tiresome.” His figure towered over me, enveloped me in a shadow that somehow seemed solid, the edge of it like a barrier impossible to move past. I was still trapped inside it when I heard a familiar voice—

“Get away from her, Sam. This isn’t her fault. You know it’s not.”

I turned and saw Luke walking toward us, a deep frown etched into his face. Hearing him say Sam’s name sent a chill coursing through me that had nothing to do with how cold it was. I watched, confused and silent, as the two black dogs charged towards Luke—only to be almost completely ignored. They followed closely at his heels, snarling and snapping, but Luke didn’t even look at them, and all he said was,

“Do me a favor and call off your stupid dogs. I’m not in the mood.”

The cold smile returned to Sam’s face. “That’s funny,” he said. “For a second there, I thought a
rogue
was telling me what to do.”

“…What did you call him?” The word was familiar, but its significance all but drowned in the confusing sea of my thoughts.

Sam glanced down at me but didn’t answer. Luke didn’t even look at me.

“And why would I be doing that?” Luke said to Sam, stopping a few feet away from us. “Clearly you don’t need anyone telling you what to do. Clearly you’ve got everything under control all by yourself—Norah’s soul is where it’s supposed to be, and Eli’s taken care of and—oh, wait.” He laughed quietly. “None of that’s true at all, is it?”

Sam’s hand had been reaching toward me, but now it fell to his side as he slowly turned to face Luke. “It would probably be in your best interest to stop talking now,” he said.

Luke shook his head, a sinister smile on his face. “…You never could handle criticism,” he said.

“No. Not from the lowly likes of
you,
anyhow—especially now that you’ve proven just how worthless you are. Now if you’ll excuse me—”

“Worthless?” Luke laughed and took another step toward him. “You know, you could use some more patience, too.”

“It’s been weeks. Just how patient am I supposed to be with you, rogue?”

“I was just waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. And tonight it did.” He shrugged, and his voice was cool, business-like as he continued, “I just left Eli, actually. We had a very enlightening…talk. I’m kind of surprised he didn’t beat me here.”

Sam straightened up, gave his full attention to Luke for the first time. He looked skeptical. “He’s coming here?”

“To see you. And I think you’ll find him in a very agreeable mood—and you’re welcome for that, by the way.”

“I should be thanking you?”

“I’m not as worthless as you seem to think.” It may have been a trick of the moonlight, but Luke’s face suddenly looked paler as he added, “I’m pretty sure it’s only a matter of time before this is all over.”

“Is that so?”

There was no lie in Luke’s eyes. Not one that I could see, or Sam either—judging by the way his own eyes lit with excitement, and then with something like triumph as he turned to me. I quickly looked away, back to Luke; his name came out in a hiss, my anger trying to mask the sick feeling spreading from the pit of my stomach.

“Luke. What are you talking about?”

His eyes never left Sam.

“Luke! Before
what’s
all over? What…”

He closed his eyes, like he was trying to imagine himself anywhere but here, like he was trying to think about any sound other than my voice.

“Why don’t you answer her?” Sam asked, his smile arrogant.

But Luke stayed silent.

“…Well maybe I can enlighten her, then,” Sam said. “At least on my part of the deal. That could be fun.” Suddenly he was right next to me, his shadow taking mine again, his nearness making it impossible to keep my focus on Luke. “Remember when I said I’d make your life a living hell?” he asked. “Luke has been very helpful with that, wouldn’t you say?”

My eyes did dart to Luke then, but only for a second. Then they were back to Sam, wide and unblinking.

“Oh yes—
that
much he managed to do, even before tonight,” Sam continued, without waiting for me to find the courage to speak. “But don’t judge him too harshly, Norah. The task wasn’t without its benefits for him. You’d never know it from looking at him, but Luke really
is
a rather skillful negotiator when he wants to be.”

A pained look had taken over Luke’s face; I didn’t want to let my eyes linger on it, but I didn’t want to look back at Sam, either. So I stared at the little patch of ground between our feet.

“What do you mean, ‘negotiator’?” I asked. Something told me I wasn’t going to like the answer. It took everything I had to listen to it anyway.

“I was hoping you’d ask.” Sam sounded like he was enjoying himself entirely too much. “You see, he was in the perfect position to do my dirty work—close proximity to you, a convenient awareness of the Afterlife that comes with his…unique soul situation. You convinced me to pay a high price in exchange for my not having to set foot on earth and deal with this mess, didn’t you, Luke?”

Luke’s face was impassive now, a wall determined to keep the truth in and both me and Sam out. The sick feeling in my stomach rolled upwards, and I tasted bile in the back of my throat.

“A high price…” I said. “What high price?”

“You know something of rogue souls?” Sam asked.

I swallowed. “Eli mentioned them.” The pieces were falling together now, whether I liked it or not, the memory of our conversation in the park burning painfully bright in my mind.

“Why am I not surprised? No doubt he’s made you a little handbook containing all the policies and procedures of the Afterlife…” He shook his head. “So you know that poor Luke here is trapped? A life sentence to be served on Earth—the penalty for rash judgment and forgetting his place as a human.”

Sam kept talking, but all I could think was: Not Luke. Not
my
Luke. I trusted him. I trust him I trust him I—

“I was kind enough to agree to offer him a release from all that,” Sam said, more loudly. “And all he had to do was drive the two of you far enough apart that Eli would forget all about this love nonsense and reap your soul properly.”

Luke finally moved then, stepped over and shoved Sam away from me. He reached for my hand, but I stumbled backward before he could touch me.

“Don’t.”

“Norah, listen—it’s not what you think.”

I took several deep breaths through my nose, afraid to open my mouth when I felt this close to throwing up; it had to have been almost a full minute before I finally managed to speak again.

“
That’s
why you’ve been trying to keep me away from Eli.”

Luke reached for me again, and this time I was too numb to move out of the way in time. His touch made my skin crawl.

“You were working for Sam the whole time.”

“
How could you?”

“Listen.” Luke’s grip on my arm tightened, the pressure increasing until I reluctantly met his eyes. “I’ve been trying to protect you,” he said.

“Protect me? How in the hell is offering my soul in exchange for yours
protecting
me?”

“You’ve got it all wrong. Sam does too—it’s so much more complicated—if you would just—”

“Get your hands
off me!
” I yanked my arm away from him so hard I stumbled back, almost lost my balance. My head was spinning. The air was thick, strangling me into silence. Not that I would have known what to say if I could speak. And I didn’t know what to do, either.

To get away from them, maybe, to go somewhere quiet and try to sort this all out. That’s what I needed. I didn’t know where to, but I’d already started walking anyway.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

Luke’s words caused a flash of white hot anger to sweep over me. How did he even have the nerve to still talk to me? To demand
any
answers from me?

“I told Eli I’d be back in an hour,” I said through clenched teeth.

He jogged after me, cut in front of me so quick I almost crashed into him. “Don’t go back there,” he said. “He’s not going to be there. Just—just stay here. Please? We need to talk.”

“I’ve got nothing to say to you.” I tried to side-step around him, but he was too big and too fast. “Get out of my way!” I went to shove past him, and he grabbed my fists and braced his strength against me, twisted me back against his chest and held me there.

“I swear to God, Luke, if you don’t let me go—”

“Calm down.”

“I am not calming down!
Let me go!”

“Let her go, Luke.” Sam’s voice was quiet, but so full of authority that Luke and me both automatically spun around to look back at him. “Now,” he said. He was looking at something behind us. I followed his gaze and saw that Luke had been telling the truth about one thing, at least; Eli was walking our way, like a ghost emerging from the cover of the fog.

The tightness in my chest loosened a little, if only for the split second I first met Eli’s eyes. Luke was still focused on Sam, and I took advantage of his distraction and pushed him away. I was running across the grass and into Eli’s arms before Luke could even try and stop me.

“Are you okay?” Eli asked quietly, gathering me against his chest.

Sam had moved just as quickly as me, and he interrupted us before I could answer.

“What a coincidence seeing you here, Eli,” he said pleasantly. “We were just talking about you.”

Eli gently pried my arms out from around him and stepped protectively between me and Sam.

“What the hell are you doing here, Sam?” he asked.

“Just paying a visit to my dear friend Norah, of course,” he said. “I promised I’d keep in touch, but I’m afraid I’ve gotten rather lax about keeping my appointments here lately. I wanted to make it up to her.”

Eli tensed. He found my hand without turning around, wrapped his fingers tightly around mine and squeezed. I squeezed back until all I felt of my hand was a slight tingling sensation where it should have been.

“I told you to leave her out of this,” Eli said.

“Don’t you hate it when people don’t listen to you?”

“You don’t need both of us. And you can’t take her anyway—I’m the one you have to deal with when the time comes, so why—”

“That time
has
come,” Sam said, rather nastily. “I just wanted to make her well aware of it. And to say goodbye, I suppose. We have gotten to be such good friends, after all.”

“He also gets a kick out of terrorizing helpless girls,” Luke said, suddenly appearing at Sam’s side. His step was cautious, but his voice had regained some of its usual arrogance. “If you want to know the
real
reason he’s here. Poor guy has such low self-esteem, and they’re the only ones he can scare after—” He was cut short by Sam’s hand wrapping around his throat, choking him and lifting him into the air.

“Keep antagonizing me,
rogue
, and we’ll see who ends up scared of who.”

Luke’s face was already turning red from lack of breath, but he was still smiling that cocky smile; when Sam threw him away a second later, his body shook with quiet laughter even as he hit the ground.

Even though Sam had been the one to shove him aside, he seemed to change his mind now, and he forgot about me and Eli for a second and advanced over Luke’s crouched body instead.

“Perhaps you need reminding,” he said. “Your soul may be immortal, but it isn’t untouchable.” A cruel grin pulled up the corners of his lips as he spoke, and his finger started to trace invisible symbols into the air; Luke’s smile faded, and he gripped his chest and drew back, fighting the look of twisted agony threatening to spread across his face. His breathing grew quick and shallow. I tried to run to him, but Eli caught me by the arm and yanked me back.

“You
have
proved marginally useful tonight,” Sam said, his finger lifting, pointing at Luke’s throat. “How useful remains to be seen—but I’m certain you could have done better, at any rate. Maybe a bit of punishment wouldn’t be out of order. Perhaps it will motivate you to do a better job the next time I require your services.”